SUBTLELY, yet substantially, J.P. Ricciardi has impacted a second straight July for the Mets. Last year, he helped pick their pockets, this year he has helped deepen them.

As the A’s director of player personnel, Ricciardi grew to believe in spring training 1999 that Jason Isringhausen could be transformed into a closer and Terrence Long’s swing was special. So as the trading deadline neared, he lobbied his bosses hard from behind the scenes to target that pair and Oakland ended up obtaining Long for Kenny Rogers and Isringhausen for Billy Taylor.

Isringhausen is now the A’s All-Star closer and Long their center fielder/leadoff man and a top contender for AL Rookie of the Year. Rogers and Taylor are long gone from Flushing, infamy part of their brief Queens legacy.

This weekend Ricciardi’s talent eye is assisting the Mets. In 1986, his first year as an area scout in New England for the A’s, he saw about 15 University of Maine games and became a champion of a plucky shortstop named Mike Bordick. Without that support, Bordick may never have received a professional contract, may never have made it to the majors and may not have homered on the first pitch he saw as a Met yesterday and delivered a single during a go-ahead eighth inning, contributing to a 4-3 victory over the Cardinals.

“He obviously is a much better player now, but what you like about him is what I liked about him then, pretty much every day he helps his team win,” Ricciardi said. “When you see him play a lot, you really gain an appreciation for what he does.”

Despite Ricciardi’s positive reports, Bordick went undrafted in 1986. The A’s had trouble signing their seventh-round pick, shortstop Ken Bowen, who played in the Cape Cod League that summer. Oakland’s then scouting director Dick Bogard asked Ricciardi what he thought of Bowen. Ricciardi said he liked another kid playing in Cape Cod more. Bordick. Ricciardi asked for $15,000 and told Bogard he could get Bordick signed, and he did.

“The more I saw him the more I was drawn to him,” Ricciardi said. “You wanted the ball hit to him in a tight game in the ninth inning. You knew he’d always be in the right spot for a cutoff. He’d put the bat on the ball offensively. I believed in him, but I have to be completely honest, when I watched him I thought he would be a good utilityman in the majors. That he has become an All-Star shortstop is a tremendous tribute to him.”

Yesterday, Bordick showed the sure hands that were evident to Ricciardi in 1986 and craved by the Mets now to replace the uncertain Melvin Mora. Bordick fielded an Edgar Renteria grounder complicated by ticking off Rick Reed in the first. He went into the hole to turn another Renteria grounder into a force-out in the fifth. But Bordick was in Atlanta for the All-Star Game and in Shea yesterday because he has expanded his offensive game over the years.

The Mets traded Jason Tyner Friday to Tampa Bay, in part, because they do not see power ever being part of his game. In this millennium, Brett Butler-types are becoming extinct. Bordick fell into the Punch-and-Judy profile earlier in his career. But by opening up his stance and building up his body and body of knowledge on pitching, Bordick has become a threat to do more than bloop a ball to right.

At the time of his trade from Baltimore, Bordick had two more extra-base hits than Derek Bell (39-37) and was tied for the third-most homers by a major-league shortstop with Jose Valentin at 16, one more than Nomar Garciaparra and six more than Derek Jeter.

Bordick hit his 17th homer on the first pitch he saw as a Met, turning on an Andy Benes belt-high fastball and turning on his new fan base, who insisted on a curtain call.

“That was one of the biggest highlights of my career,” Bordick said.

Before the game, when asked how he would describe himself as a player, Bordick said, “everything I have heard is you have to watch this guy for a while.” But that report is dated, the kind Ricciardi filed more than a decade ago. Bordick almost certainly will grow on Met fans with his steely consistency on and off the field. But now he also can impress quickly, not just over the long haul.

He can pull a homer to left for the Mets’ first run and ground a single to right to position the winning run. He can go deep and deep in the hole. At 35, he has gray at his temples and a bit of a bald spot atop his head, but he waxed youthful about playing again where every pitch matters, playing before 50,000 psyched fans because it is a pennant race, not just because it is Camden Yards. The spirit remains that once made an area scout feel he was seeing much more than the generally accepted non-prospect tag.

“Mike will never be the greatest player on the field, he wasn’t in college,” Ricciardi said. “But he makes you see him by doing so many things right. He is a winning player. He makes you root for him. I’ve been rooting for him a long time now.”